A Malaysian man was sentenced to three years in jail at a trial in Hanoi for cheating a mobile phone shop out of VND35 million (US$1,665) with fraudulent credit cards, Vietnam News Agency (VNA)reported.

According to the indictment, Koay Keng Chen, 22, entered Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh City-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport on April 24. He later went to Hanoi, where he bought two iPhone 4 for VND35 million and made the payment with an international credit card on May 6. Later, Chen sold the phones to another foreigner for $700, the news agency reported.

The next day, the Malaysian came back to the same shop with another person who has yet to be identified, to buy five other iPhone 4 for a total of VND85 million (US$4,043).

Chen then made the payment with four credit cards, but only one of them worked. Very soon after the shop's assistants found the cards were fraudulent.

The duo ran away, but Chen was nabbed by police.

Police later confiscated 14 cards from the man. All cards were fraudulent, but some of them had successfully been used to make payments. Police also found a fake Chinese passport, VNA said.

According to Chen, he bought the cards and the passport from an unknown person in Malaysia.